Viktor Zhdanov

Who is Viktor Zhdanov?

Viktor Mikhailovich Zhdanov was a Russian virologist. He was instrumental in the effort to eradicate smallpox globally.

Zhdanov was born in the Ukrainian village of Shtepino. After Zhdanov graduated from Kharkiv Medical Institute in 1936, he spent the next decade working as an army doctor, where he became interested in epidemiology; this work would directly lead to his doctoral thesis on Hepatitis A. In 1946, Zhdanov was invited to become Chief of the Epidemiology Department of the I. I. Mechnikoff Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Kharkiv, becoming its director two years later. His work in virus classification saw him admitted to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses as a life member.

In 1958, Zhdanov, as Deputy Minister of Health for the Soviet Union, called on the World Health Assembly to undertake a global initiative to eradicate smallpox. The proposal was accepted in 1959. Zhdanov left the Ministry of Health in 1961, and focused on scientific research for the rest of his career. This work included studying influenza, hepatitis, and in the 1980s, the AIDS virus.